China-Australia relations: Africa’s winemakers, miners toast ‘potential’ of trade dispute

Beijing hit a range of Australian goods with punitive duties last year, giving African suppliers of anything from coal to beef to copper a welcome boost

China slapped up to 212 per cent tariffs on Australian wine in November; exports of South African wine to China have jumped 50 per cent since then

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Shaun McVey is the marketing manager at Vergenoegd Löw, which has signed a new Chinese deal. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:30am, 11 Feb 2021Updated: 5:51am, 11 Feb 2021

For South African winemaker Vergenoegd Löw, the coronavirus pandemic could have been a disaster, but a bitter trade war between China and Australia has thrown the 325-year-old estate a lifeline.

Bottles of its reds, whites and roses piled up when South Africa banned alcohol sales under a strict lockdown and visitors who once flocked to the vineyard near Cape Town to sip wine and snap photos of its famed Indian Runner ducks vanished.

That changed when Beijing slapped tariffs of up to 212 per cent on Australian wine in November after Canberra led calls for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

It was not just wine. Beijing hit a range of Australian goods with punitive duties, created new layers of red tape and banned some Australian imports outright, giving African suppliers of anything from coal to beef to copper a boost.

We can now get much greater volumes of sales. Instead of sending maybe three or four containers in a year, we’ve upped that to 15 to 20 containers

Shaun McVey

“We can now get much greater volumes of sales,” said Shaun McVey, marketing manager at Vergenoegd Löw, which has signed a new Chinese deal. “Instead of sending maybe three or four containers in a year, we’ve upped that to 15 to 20 containers.”

Chinese drinkers bought nearly 40 per cent of Australia’s wine exports before the long-simmering tensions between Beijing and Canberra boiled over and brought the trade to an abrupt halt.